That the frightful tyranny and the horrible oppression and cruelty under which Mehemet Ali Pacha has belaboured us—(he who pretends to be as one of your Majesty’s slaves, but who, in fact, has dared to be treacherous to your most illustrious and venerated defunct Father, of blessed memory, and whose abode now may be Paradise)—have compelled us to throw ourselves at the feet of your Imperial Throne, which is adorned with the rays of justice and mercy,—spreading our supplicating arms towards your Majesty’s paternal and sublime clemency, that you may be pleased to turn your eye towards our protection and safety,—knowing as we do how vast and extensive the equity of your Majesty’s Government, which is so renowned throughout the world.—and how immense and unlimited your Majesty’s mercy and clemency; wherefore our hearts burn with the fire of the desire of attaining that happiness also, which is enjoyed by all those fortunate beings who are your subjects. What crime have we committed to cause your Majesty’s resplendent face to be turned away from us, and thereby we should be left to be thrashed under the edges of an unbearable tyranny and of an insupportable iniquity and oppression, while our fathers and forefathers, ever since a period of four hundred years, have continually enjoyed the happiness and comfort of the protection of your Majesty’s Imperial Standard? We are their sons, and prepared to follow their steps, that we may inherit the same happiness which they enjoyed for so many centuries, to the great glory of your Majesty’s Imperial Dynasty. We therefore pray and supplicate your paternal benignity and clemency not to abandon us, and to let it be said that a vast and numerous population has been left to be immolated as a sacrifice to the selfish ambition and sordid avarice of a single man, a tyrant, totally void of feeling and humanity, who not only proved himself ungrateful to, and forgetful of, your Majesty’s great bounty to him, but dared, most perfidiously, to turn his sword towards your sacred person. Seeing ourselves thus placed in this most wretched and miserable condition, bordering on the last degree of our total ruin and annihilation, we have got up and raised your Majesty’s mighty Standard in defence of the legitimate and lawful rights of your Imperial Sovereignty over us, for which we shall continue to fight to the last breath of our existence; and therefore we trust to the Divine aid of the Almighty, and in your Majesty’s assistance, to overpower that common enemy of yours and ours, and to drive him away from your dominions.